Almost everyone in California knows what a ferret is. And most think the creatures should remain illegal, according to a new poll that has ferret lovers frowning – and some at each other’s necks – the state over.

“Only 38 percent favor legalization. That’s kind of absurd,” said Pat Wright, who founded Ferrets Anonymous in 1993 and directed a fundraising campaign to pay the $6,000 for Field Research to conduct the poll. “I thought California was more of a live-and-let-live state. If we had proposed legalized gay marriage or marijuana, we would’ve gotten a higher number.”

This is all very bad news for Wright and the others who sought a ballot measure to legalize ferrets as pets – as they are in every state except California and Hawaii.

Moreover, the poll itself – and the ultimate goal of a statewide initiative – has brought out some sharp, pointy teeth and general disharmony among the ferret community.

But first to the poll, a random sample of 754 registered voters between March 21 to March 28 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6percent, said Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo, whose company conducted it.

Respondents overwhelmingly said they know what a ferret is – 87percent. Let Wright tell the rest. This his from his group e–mail sent Thursday and addressed, “Dear Ferret Friend.”

“The Field Poll came out this afternoon with bad news for us. …

“What should we do now? The only option I can think of is to accept our criminal status; no legislator will touch the bill now.”

Wright and his cohorts had wanted to go straight to the voters to avoid yet another legislative defeat in Sacramento. The most recent legalization attempt fizzled last year when a bill by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, died in committee.

Ferret freedom fighters say ferrets, the long, slender members of the weasel family, make dandy pets, even if they can be quite odorous if not spayed or neutered. But critics of legalization say the little guys can bite and, if loosed, could form feral colonies and despoil native flora and fauna.

Nonsense, Wright and others say. Still, the state Department of Fish and Game is against it, and its view jibes with that of Californians, the poll confirms.

This brings us to flying ferret fur.

Wright’s poll and ballot proposal has been harshly and publicly criticized by longtime volunteer ferret-legalization lobbyist Jeanne Carley of Woodside.

Asked how to best get in touch with her, Wright suggested: “I don’t know, 1-800-WITCH?”

“One thing Pat got right in his latest missive is that the bad news on the Field Poll does hurt our chances for a new bill,” she wrote, “not as catastrophic as a failed initiative but still this will most likely have some negative ramifications. And this is sad.”

Both she and Wright agree on one thing. It’s not the time to again push for legalization – perhaps later, with the arrival of “some new faces in the Legislature and a new face on the ferret front,” Carley wrote.

As for Wright, does he regret documenting the public feeling on ferrets?

“It was the truth and the truth is always good to have,” he said Friday. “No one had a clue what the poll would show. Now we know. We have a lot of work to do.”

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